Bedside Promises
by KageNoNeko
Summary: From her daughter, from her boss, and from her husband, she received promises from them as the last days came to the her. As her boss watches on, he couldn't help, but think that her daughter reminded him of HER.


**AN: After reading a bunch of fanfics with this pairing, I decided to do one of these and I'm trying it in Microsoft Word instead of OpenOffice's Writer. This is drawing on some inferences I made from the manga. Listening to some sad music in the last few scenes will be good because that was what I did when writing those scenes. Enjoy and me don't own Ouran. **

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Bedside Promises**

Her eyes were closed when he entered silently and solemnly. He didn't come with flowers, but comfort as he walked towards the chair in the room. Sitting down, he took her hand into both of his hands and brought it to his lips lightly kissing it. Watching her sleep lightly, he was able to smile knowing that for now the pain—emotional and physical—was not bothering her.

She stirred slightly and squeezed his hand before opening her tired-looking eyes to see him. "My parents…how…?" She asked not finishing her sentence, but knowing he understood what she meant.

"They're doing fine, enjoying having time with their granddaughter," he said before the tears started to run down his face. "They are sad about the circumstances."

As she smiled up at him, she raised her other her other hand and cupped his cheek and began to rub away the tears. "Please don't cry, Ryouji. Our daughter needs you to be strong," she said softly.

"I know, I know, but she hasn't cried at all, Kotoko."

"Oh," she started as she placed her hand against his shoulder and pushed down on it. He understood the gesture and leaned down so his ear was near her so she could whisper whatever she wanted to. "She's like me," she started again this time in a whisper into his ear. "You and my parents are the only ones to see me cry."

He pulled away and looked at her with understanding eyes. "Then when will she cry?"

"I will give to my boss a locket to him that he will give to her," she said. "Ryouji, please promise that you will arrange a meeting between them when you think she has fallen in love with someone."

"I will, but she reminds me of you. I don't think I can handle seeing her fall in love," he said softly as he wrapped her into a gentle hug being mindful of the IV that was in her arm.

She returned the hug with all her strength and began to cry silently into his shirt thinking about not seeing her daughter when she would fall in love with someone and all of the other things that she would miss out. "Another promise, Ryouji. Please don't bring her here if they tell you exactly…," she trailed off as her tears slowed.

"I won't. She's too young to witness death first hand," he said as he began rubbing her back. "I'll make sure your parents have time to see you tomorrow. We will all come and see you. Hopefully, tomorrow is not the last."

"I would like that," she said before yawning, "and to sleep beside you one more time."

"You know you are not strong enough for you to come home for a few days, but I'll try to see if the doctors will allow me to stay overnight with you."

"Thank you, Ryouji."

"Anything," he said before pushing her back. "I want you know the promise I made to myself before…."

"I understand," she said as he laid her on the bed.

"I will never love another woman besides you, Kotoko."

"If that's what makes you happy, then I don't care."

"You don't?"

"That's what I said, idiot," she said calling him idiot for the first time since they had been married.

"Kotoko, you really can't mean that," he started to whine.

"You're acting like one," she said. "Now go ask them if you can sleep with me tonight."

"I will," he said before kissing her and leaving to go ask the question that needed to be asked.

* * *

On the next morning, he woke up next to her and waited for her to wake up. Once she did, he got up from the bed and told her that he was going to bring her parents, who were watching over their daughter. Upon his leaving, the doctor came in and after examining her, increased the dosage of the pain medicine being given to her. As soon as the pain medicine took effect, she drifted asleep and didn't wake up until she heard her daughter calling her. Opening her eyes, she saw her almost five-year-old daughter being held by her mother. Next to her mother stood her father with a sad smile and before her eyes could glance around the room in the search for Ryouji, he squeezed her hand. "I'll help you sit up," he said.

She nodded and took his help in sitting up. Once she was sitting up with Ryouji sitting behind her, her mother sat her daughter down in her lap, and she instantly wrapped her arms around her daughter. "How's my little girl?" She asked as she ran her fingers through her daughter's long hair.

"Fine. Grandma and me bake cookies together and we brought some for you, Mommy," she said.

"Did you, Haruhi?"

"She did," said Ryouji from behind her before Haruhi could answer. "They are sitting on the nightstand waiting for when you want them."

"Dad, I'm not a baby," said the little Haruhi as turned her head to look at her dad.

"Don't worry about him, he's proud of you, but since your birthday's coming up, I had your dad go buy your birthday gift for me. It's not wrapped so I need you to close your eyes," she said as Ryouji got up and walked to a spot in the room.

Haruhi closed her eyes and within a few minutes, felt something draped around her shoulders and her mother tying something around her neck. "Can I open them?" She asked when she felt her mother's hands back away.

"Yes. I hope you like it," she said as her daughter opens her eyes to look at the green blanket that was draped on to her like a cape. "It's a little too big for you now, but you should do fine with it when you are older."

"Thank you, Mommy," said Haruhi as she wrapped her arms around her mother, never noticing that her grandparents and father had followed a doctor out of the room.

"I'm glad you like it," her mother said returning the hug. "Can you promise me something?"

"Sure, Mommy."

"Will you promise me to make sure daddy doesn't have to fix dinner alone every night?" Haruhi nodded yes. "Are you getting tired?"

"Yes, mommy."

"Then take your nap with me. Once daddy gets back, I'll be taking one and would enjoy taking one while you are taking one, Haruhi," she said before helping her daughter lay down.

Once her daughter had lain down and was starting to fall asleep, she ran her hand through her daughter's hair until Ryouji returned. "Your parents decided to go walk around. He said he doesn't expect…," Ryouji trailed off as he looked at Haruhi sleeping.

"I understand. Can you help me lay back down?"

Ryouji nodded and did as commanded. Once she was lying back down, he moved Haruhi to be laying more on his wife's belly. "Is that comfortable, Kotoko?"

"Yes," she said before Ryouji kissed her.

"I'll watch over you two. Get some rest," said Ryouji after he pulled away from kissing her.

She smiled before falling asleep with one arm on top of Haruhi and Ryouji holding her hand.

* * *

She had seen her daughter for the last time and now her boss was here to hear her out about something she wished to ask of him. "You asked me to come here. So, do tell me Kotoko-san what I can do with my presence here," her boss said.

"Shigeru-san, there's a locket on the nightstand that I want you to take and keep until Ryouji calls you up to meet my daughter when she has fallen in love," she said before looking towards the window. "I want you to take of picture of the last kiss Ryouji gives me. I want him to be able to have that picture for himself, but I want Haruhi to be able to see it when she has a family of her own."

"I will be more than happy to do that for you. I wish this didn't have to happen. You have been so successful. I never seen someone in all my years as successful," Shigeru said

"You don't have to praise me, Shigeru-san," she said as she stared out the window.

"I will miss you and everyone else will miss you," said Shigeru.

"There's another promise I want you to make to me."

"What is it?"

"Could you please make sure Ryouji doesn't make our daughter's life any more harder than it is? I trust him, but don't think he can handle me not being around."

"I certainly will, Kotoko-san. I will take my leave now and come back tomorrow," said Shigeru as he picked up the locket and began to walk away, but stopped to turn around and look at her once again. "I will have everyone help me to keep my promise to you."

"Ryouji has promised never to love another woman again," she said.

"I guess he can promise that. He's bi originally," said Shigeru with a smile before bowing and leaving the room.

* * *

The pain woke her up that morning, and Ryouji had sat down on the bed and hold her until the pain medicine took effect. Once it did take effect, he didn't let her go and kept a firm hold on her. While this all took place, Shigeru was watching them from a chair and held a camera ready to take the picture Kotoko had asked. Then a moment of intense pain came over her and she held on to Ryouji tightly. The end was nearing and she knew it.

All through the rest of the morning, nurses and doctors came into the room trying to make her as comfortable as possible, and when they suggest that she should lie down to help the pain, she refused and clung to Ryouji more tightly. Then late afternoon came, and the end was closer. Both knew it, and he decided to make the first move. "I want to give you one last kiss, but I don't want it to not be memorable," he said.

"Any kiss will be memorable, Ryouji," she said. "Besides I trust you to know when to stop."

He nodded in understanding before leaning down and placing his lips on top of hers to start the final kiss. As the kiss progressed, neither realized that Shigeru had taken a few pictures and didn't care for they were completely involved with each other as they deepened the kiss. They pulled apart for a few minutes to catch their breaths before returning to another kiss that quickly deepened again. As this new kissed progressed, she had one hand in his hair and one arm around his neck. The hand in his hair played with the locks and when her strength to kiss back started to fade, the hand kept playing with his locks of hair, albeit, more like twitching among his locks. As her strength continued to fade, his strong arms tightened around her and brought her closer to his body. Enjoying his warmth, she never noticed him crying, the wetness touching her cheeks, or Shigeru taking another photo. She was oblivious to all around her except for his lips on top of hers.

When her hand that was twitching in his hair slowed to almost a stop, he pulled away and laid a kiss on her left cheek like he had the first time he done so. Then as her hand started to slide away from his hair, he placed a kiss on her forehead before leaning over to whisper into her ear, "I love you, Kotoko, and I promise to never to forget you, my love."

She smiled before slipping into a sleep to never awaken again. A doctor came in and checked her out before giving some pain medicine to her through the IV-line and calmly left the room. Ryouji remained standing holding on to her hand, crying as the beeping from the heart monitor began to slow. Once silence, a deathly one, came upon the room, he began to sob loudly but continued to hold her hand as it started to grew cold. A few nurses watched his display of sadness from the door, knowing that they couldn't help any more as they wrote down the time of death.

Shigeru rose up from the chair and placed a comforting hand on the young man's shoulder, wishing he could take the burden of sadness and raising a daughter all alone. A burden that would never leave was not something that Shigeru could help with, but at least, the pictures taken today will be reminders of the good that occurred at the end.

Dropping the now cold hand from his hands, Ryouji rubbed his eyes dry of the tears and looked at the cold body of his wife. "Shigeru-san, thank you for being here for us until the end," he said, his voice soften by sadness.

"I only did what I promised, but if I helped you, then I am honored that I was able to," said Shigeru removing his hand from his shoulder. "I wished I could've done more for her because she was the best lawyer that I've seen. If we had started at the same time, she would've been my boss Ryouji-san."

"The best?"

"Yes, the best I've seen."

"Then what I will miss just as much her is the look of admiration that my daughter would have on her face when Kotoko would say good-bye to her in the morning.

"Your daughter, Haruhi-chan, has she told you what she wants to be when she grows up?"

"No, but I can guess she wants to become a lawyer."

"Daughter like mother."

"Yes," said Ryouji as he pulled the sterile white blanket over his beloved face.

Shigeru took him and lead the man out, but at the door, the two men peered back to see the covered body that was no longer the woman that they both knew before continuing out the door. As Shigeru continued to guide Ryouji, he thought about the little girl that he had met when Kotoko had first brought her family along to one of their workplace gatherings. He couldn't help to think that he may see that little girl chase after her goals and succeed.

On the train heading towards the part of town where the Katayamas lived, the two men never talked, but drew comfort in that they would stick together until the Katayamas knew of the death that had occurred. After the train, they got off and walked towards the house. When Mrs. Katayama opened the door and saw Ryouji, she broke down, and Shigeru hugged her. When Mr. Katayama found them, his eyes became teary, and he took Ryouji to the sleeping Haruhi. Ryouji , left alone, picked up his daughter and allowed more tears to fall from his already red eyes. Never did he notice that Shigeru was watching him from the doorway because Haruhi had woken up.

"Mom?" She questioned.

"She's no longer in pain," he said.

Silence settled upon father and daughter, but it was interrupted by a yawn from the daughter. "Dad, I want to become a lawyer like mom," she said before drifting asleep again.

"She'll be proud of you looking down upon you from up in Heaven," said Ryouji as he began to cry again.

"I will see you at the funeral, Ryouji-san with the pictures," said Shigeru.

"Thank you, Shigeru-san," said Ryouji. "For everything."

"We will be keeping in contact because I promised Kotoko-san more than what you know about."

"She did?"

"Yes. If you ever need help, we will help you for we could never pay her what she was worth to us. I think I was right about saying she will become like her mother," said Shigeru before bowing. "I will take my leave."

Ryouji nodded his head before he began to cry over his daughter. Turning away from crying father and sleeping daughter, Shigeru left the doorway and allowed his own tears to spill out after wishing the Katayama parents well.

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That's the saddest thing that I had written. So please do review and tell me how well I did because I want to know if I was able to make you to cry.**


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